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Professional services firm, Deloitte was a title sponsor of the inaugural World Retail Congress Africa, held last month in Sandton. I spoke to Ilse du Toit, a manager within the Strategy & Innovation practice at Deloitte Consulting.

NEWSWATCH: And they're back in the news, instead of reporting it... You've got it... the SABC... because it seems its Hlaudi Motsoeneng wants 70% of the news to be positive, reports Mail & Guardian, which also reports that the 'sunshine' policy is not good news in Media Monitoring Africa' eyes. But some good news anyway, EWN reports that Egyptian authorities have released South African photographer Adil Bradlow.

No, the concepts of "tribalism", "gamification" and "engagement" aren't a promo for the latest computer game, but are in fact the trends that will characterise the way companies and consumers interact in 2013. The branding industry is constantly developing and. while the following trends are evolutions rather than dynamic, short-term changes, we believe there are 10 areas that will define the brandscape over the next year.

"African people - like me - are completely disillusioned with the performance of their leaders because of what they have done and what they are doing, and for me these people should not be called leaders, but rather the elite," Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki and chairman of the SA Institute of International Affairs, said, speaking at the CNN-MultiChoice media forum currently taking place in Bryanston, Johannesburg, on Friday, 24 June 2011.

As concern mounts over the fate of Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer missing in Libya alongside two US journalists and one Spanish photographer, the Presidency said yesterday, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, that President Jacob Zuma has been briefed on the attempts made by the SA mission in Libya to locate Hammerl. Reports from Washington DC also suggest that the White House is very concerned about their well-being and it is trying hard to assist them in any way it can.

Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, has launched a resource page called 'Journalists on Facebook' to help reporters find sources, interact with their readers and advance stories, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported on Wednesday 6, April 2011.

After nursing its wounds inflicted by the tyrannical regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian media - aided by the Jasmine Revolution - has begun to count the costs of the oppression, pull itself together and plan for the future. As the road to freedom is still littered with 'technical' obstacles, many observers wonder: where to from here?

The fundamental reason that many African governments ban and harass the media has more to do with personal connotations than other issues, Kenya's Henry Maina, director of Article 19 Eastern Africa, told delegates at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference last week in Johannesburg.

There is some substantiated regulation of what the media can do and what it cannot do, but the balance must be struck between what the law has prescribed and freedom of expression, Prof Dario Milo, Wits University media law visiting professor and Webber & Wentzel partner, said last week in Johannesburg at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference.

As governments across the African continent come under increasing pressure from critical media, 'vulture' ruling parties believe the only way to deal with this 'surrogate opposition' is to regulate it through statutory mechanisms that will eventually dent its wayward reporting. But some African voices of reason, such as Zambia's Fred M'membe, argue that the restriction of good media never produces good media.

Due to the lack of a strong and united political opposition, the media in Africa, at least those that are critical of government policies, becomes a powerful force called a surrogate opposition, Prof Tawana Kupe, dean of faculty of humanities at Wits University, said this week in Johannesburg.

Until 1992, journalists and editors in Ghana, and the independent media in general, have suffered a lot at the hands of undemocratic regimes, which cracked down on critical reporting and imposed strict restrictions limiting media freedom. As a new, liberal constitution was being written in 1992, media activists came out guns blazing, demanding that media suffering end and reporting become free. [view twitterfall]

The Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists is now accepting applications from professional journalists from developing countries for its 2011 Fellowship Program. The application deadline is 6 April 2011.

As the independent media in Africa is engaged in a fierce battle against repressive and not-so-democratic governments keen to sweep their corrupt wrongdoings under the carpet, the issue of self-regulation has become almost like a daily bread in many parts of the continent. [view twitterfall]

The right of access to information is being hampered in many parts of the world, especially in Africa, by government officials wary of journalists' desire to 'embarrass' them, and the state's 'insincere' reason of hiding behind the issue of national security. This emerged today, Wednesday, 9 March 2011, at the Regulations and Rights media conference at Wits University in Johannesburg. [view twitterfall]

The press is powerful, and as judges we are aware of the power of the press, and when you are in a position of power, self-reflection is very important, former Constitutional Court judge Kate O'Regan said today, Wednesday, 9 March 2011, at the Regulations and Rights media conference currently taking place at Wits University in Johannesburg. [view twitterfall]

Did you know they have "press rallies" in Malawi? That the media in Senegal is relatively free, but doesn't always report the news responsibly? That most of Kenya's media is owned by politicians? These are just a few of the many interesting - and chilling - facts and opinions that came to light at a panel discussion in Johannesburg last week.

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) has announced the winners of the inaugural Women Entrepreneurs in the Global Digital News Frontier grants. Each grantee will receive US$20,000 to launch innovative new media enterprises.

As we chronicle how the brave people of Egypt and Tunisia fight to win their basic freedoms for the first time, the rest of Africa looks to be sliding back into the ever-tightening rule of Big Men. The question is, what will we do about it? What will we do to make sure Free African Media is a reality?

The Tunisian people's revolution, which pushed President Ben Ali out of power after 23 years of bloody and corrupt rule, has also precipitated the release of some journalists and bloggers from jail and lifted media restrictions. Many African editors and journalists - already operating in a hostile environments - are now hoping that similar winds of change will spread to other parts of the continent.

The recent global recession has changed our world forever. In a new digital age, characterised by oversupply and too many product types in almost every market, the challenge for companies will be to locate and capture pools of high-profit demand and be able to move with speed and flexibility to take advantage of them. Here are 11 trends for 2011.

Despite the slight decrease last year in the number of journalists killed across the globe, a heated debate continues to rage on about the massive impunity surrounding these killings, as analysts decry governments' lack of action, and more journalists flee their homelands and threaten to quit the profession.

The School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, will host a three-day global conference on journalism education starting from 5 July 2010, head of school Prof Guy Berger told Bizcommunity.com. So far, 330 delegates - half of them from Africa - have already registered to attend the conference.

President Jacob Zuma put aside his family troubles for a while yesterday, Sunday, 6 June 2010, to have a joyful moment with local and international journalists, whom he addressed at his Pretoria presidential guesthouse on the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) is up and running and ready to welcome 13 000 accredited journalists and 179 licensee broadcasting entities from 70 countries around the world who will produce images and sounds and all the excitement of the 2010 FIFA World Cup under the blessing and supervision of France-based Host Broadcast Services (HBS).

The SABC, as the FIFA World Cup's official broadcaster, announced its broadcasting plans for the tournament on Thursday, 13 May 2010. Peter Kwele, 2010 projects GM, said the SABC is confident that it will deliver the World Cup as it has never been done before.

Monday, 3 May 2010, marks the annual commemoration of World Press Freedom Day - a day when all global citizens should remember, celebrate and protect the crucial role that free media plays within democracy and development.